So I’m having a bit of a problem with my cucumbers. The vines are growing nicely, I think, and the plants are flowering like crazy. And every so often I find a tiny new cucumber starting. The problem is that a few days later, I’ll look for that little cucumber and find it brown and shriveled.
I think that I’ve been watering the plants enough– at least once a day. I try to make sure that the soil never completely dries out. But as I admitted in an earlier post, I think that I might have too many plants in one pot. There’s something like 8 vines in the one pot.
So I need some advice. Would it be enough to start fertilizing the plants (perhaps with so many plants in one pot, they’ve used up the nutrients from the original fertilizer–which was supposed to be enough for 3 months–in the potting soil) or am I going to have to sacrifice some of the vines so that I can actually get good cucumbers?
UPDATE (30 June 2008): I have written a post about hand-pollinating cucumbers complete with photos: http://vegetablog.wordpress.com/2008/06/30/stop-shriveling-cucumbers/
I have the exact same problem! My cucumbers last year wilted at the same stage yours are, and it looks like it’s happening again this year. If you figure this out, send me an email! Your blog is the closest I’ve come to finding any answers online.
I’m in Chicago – where are you? I wonder if it’s a climate thing?
I posted a question about this here:
http://ask.metafilter.com/65155/Cucumber-woes
It sounds like what you (and I) think are baby cucumbers may just be unpollinated female blossoms. I’m going to try hand pollinating this year. Read this article:
http://extension.oregonstate.edu/news/story.php?S_No=924&storyType=garden
A friend of mine who has done some gardening saw my cucumbers (or lack thereof!) last night, and mentioned that the same thing happened when she kept a cucumber plant indoors one season. She suggested that the cucumbers might be shriveling because they have not been properly pollinated. I’m going to try the trick mentioned on my “Cucumbers” page (see the tabs above)– hand-pollinate the female flowers with male flower pollen using a paintbrush. It may be that because I am on what is essentially the fourth story of a building, the bees, etc. don’t find my flowers to do their thing.
jer– thanks for your comment. I’ll keep updating about this! I am also in Illinois, though further south than Chicago.
jer- thanks for following up with your second comment! I didn’t see it after I’d posted mine! I’m glad that our answers agree, and I hope that your cucumbers stop shriveling!!
I’m having the same problem. Once the cucumber is almost the size of my pinky finger, they shrivel and die. I have many many beautiful flowers on the plants, but the cucumbers won’t grow. I know they’re being pollinated, since the cucumber starts to grow. I have them in pots on my deck and water them well once a day. My green beans and tomatoes are fruiting beautifully in the pots. Any suggestions are most welcome.
p.s. I’m in Michigan
I’m not an expert, and of course, I haven’t seen your plants, but I think that maybe the female flowers really aren’t getting pollinated. The female flowers actually have a baby cucumber behind them (I have a picture of one at the end of this post… And they do grow a bit (some can get quite biggish, as you said, pinky-sized) until the flower blooms. If the bloom dies unpollinated the baby cucumber will shrivel…
The links in the comments from jer, above, are very helpful.
If last year is any indication, even unpollinated blossoms can look like they’re starting to grow, and then just die.
I’m happy to say that hand pollination is working this year – I’ve already got a few four-inch cucumbers out there now.
jer, I’m so glad to hear that your cucumbers are doing well! Mine are definitely responding to the hand-pollination as well.
It seems that I am having the same problem with my cucumber plants. There is a lot of the female blooms and the fruit is turning yellow. I spent some time with doing the hand-pollination but what happens if you don’t have any male blooms? I was able to harvest 4 cucumbers off one plant and now the rest of new female blooms don’t produce any fruit.
What can I do?
ausmith, I don’t know if I have any good advice for you… This is my first garden ever, and it’s quite an experiment. I’m not sure there’s anything you can do if there aren’t any male flowers… Unless you can contrive to transport male cuke pollen from a friend’s plant! I really hope that you can figure out what’s wrong with your fruit…
I do know (from reading The Bountiful Container… see my post about the book here) that if a vine produces a fruit that has fully-grown seeds, that vine will stop producing more fruit. But I don’t know if that’s your problem or not…
[...] flowers, more about that below), and then the baby cucumbers would shrivel. I posted about it in the “Shriveling cucumbers” post, which has consistently been the top-viewed post on this blog. Between the suggestions of a friend [...]
Thanks for this post, and the various people that answered. I’m surprised how hard it was to find an answer. But I’m crap at formatting web searches.
Glad to hear that the shriveling is normal. And here I thought it was just the hot, dry summer we’re having here in Austin. Our cucumber is on the ground outside, and it looks like a three or so have been successfully pollinated. It was frustrating (and a little worrisome) seeing so many baby cucumbers shrivel up!
But maybe we’re on our way! Yay!
my cucumbers keep shriviling up and my neighbors have been getting 2-3 full cucumbers a month the bees have been reaching my plant and they are still shriviling up, its so irritating. i had 2 plants and 1 died even though ive been watering it once a day.what do i do????? HELPP PLLEEAASSEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!
samantha: you may want to go to your local garden center and ask an expert there– they will very likely know more about what to do for cucumber plants that aren’t producing than I do.
gardengeekette: Thanks for the advice and i went to the home depot and they had a lot of valuble information and they also suggested that i go to a plant nursery and i will be going soon. If you find out before me about what is happening to my cucumbers please write to me on this vegetablog.
Tanks a lot – Samantha